Have a Picnic

During our family vacation in July, we stopped at a Montana state park to have a picnic on our way from Glacier to Missoula.  We found this large lake with some picnic tables along the coast.  Even though it was the end of July, it was very cold.  Mom and dad had to get jackets and I was wrapped up in 2 towels.  It was actually pretty funny to see us cuddled up together, eating deli sandwiches in summer.  Far from what happens back home.  But it was so nice to get out of the car, and have some quiet family time.

Get Messy Prompt

A  self portrait without a photo...This was difficult for me.  I knew I wanted to show my love for photography, but I'm defined by so much more than that.  Also, not including a potrait is hard for someone who loves photos and values what they mean.  I also didn't have much time to complete 2 pages this week.  The downside of a full time job and other commitments surfacing with the 'new year' (a.k.a. new school year, which is funny because I'm not in school nor do I have kids.  But it seems like there are a lot of new beginnings at the end of August/September.)

My first page, a self portrait.  The base of this page was a magazine ad. I choose snow becasue I was born on the coldest day of the year in Minnesota.  I included my birthday, a camera.  I love to travel and I think it is important to be true you yourself.  The amperstand symbolizes the togetherness of my family.

For the second page.  I found this quote from an Ed Sheeran song on pinterest and I added the little hearts.  I see him in concert next week so it will be a great little addition for my Project Life album.



Get Messy is an art journal challenge where a gang of crafty vixens are sharing art journal pages we have created to practise our skills and push past our creative limits with hopes to inspire. We share our pages without restraint every week, and once a month we create around a prompt. Go check out these crazy talented ladies who are creating pages who each have a unique perspective and style. We will be sharing our work around social media so follow the hashtag #getmessyartjournal.

Week Thirty Three
August 12, 2014

Week Thirty Two

August 7, 2014

Week Thirty One

August 2, 2014

What happens the week after you go on vacation and take 1300 photos?  You don't take any photos (except the one for this project) and are glued to the computer editing photos and trying to figure out what ones to print for a scrapbook and in what sizes.  I miss vacation, but I'm glad to be back home.

Get Messy | Four

Get Messy is an art journal challenge where a gang of crafty vixens are sharing art journal pages we have created to practise our skills and push past our creative limits with hopes to inspire. We share our pages without restraint every week, and once a month we create around a prompt. Go check out these crazy talented ladies who are creating pages who each have a unique perspective and style. We will be sharing our work around social media so follow the hashtag #getmessyartjournal.

Family Vacation: Part Five: Grand Teton

We saved Grand Teton as our (almost) half way home stopping point.  It was a great decision, because that meant we got to go through part of Yellowstone again.

I read this blog as they did pretty much the same vacation, but in a much longer time frame (and a few extra stops).  She recommended eating at the Taco Bus that is at the West Side of the park.  Silly me, I thought it was inside the park.  Since we were well inside the park, and the Taco Bus was just outside the west entrance, we missed it the first time going to Yellowstone earlier in the week.  Thankfully, we definitely didn't miss it this time around.  Yes, we ate inside the bus, and yes, the food was awesome.

We stopped and took a few photos of the river and some animals as we were leaving out the south entrance.

 ^^ The food was amazing! 

 ^^ Grand Teton

 ^^ Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip!  This guy was SO close to the road and we saw him drooling, it was incredible!

 ^^ Had dinner at Jackson Hole.  We really want to go back here one day!

Oh vacation, thank you for being amazing!

Get Messy | Three

This week I'm sharing my Summer Bucket List mini book.  

Enjoy! 

Get Messy is an art journal challenge where a gang of crafty vixens are sharing art journal pages we have created to practise our skills and push past our creative limits with hopes to inspire. We share our pages without restraint every week, and once a month we create around a prompt. Go check out these crazy talented ladies who are creating pages who each have a unique perspective and style. We will be sharing our work around social media so follow the hashtag #getmessyartjournal.

12of12 | August 2014

So I totally forgot about this project until 8:30am.  Normally that is early for me, but I got up at 6 for work so I missed out on 2.5 hours of potential documenting.  This is the first time I forgot about a 12of12 in 4 years!  It's my favorite project, how could I forget?!  And with that note, today was kinda boring.  Work.  Lunch.  Meeting.  Dinner.  Meeting (some more).  Bed.  Oh well...

1.  Work.
2.  Animal crackers.
3.  So nice to get a little fresh air.
4.  Miss Abby had to have some mac and cheese too.
5.  Flowers.
6.  Headed back to work.
7.  Junior League planning for the 2014-2015 year.
8.  Panera for dinner while we met.
9.  Made a lot of progress.
10.  Home.
11.  Getting ready for bed.
12.  But a little reading first.

Family Vacation: Part Four: Missoula, MT

After we spend a day and a few nights in Glacier, we headed to Missoula, MT.  On the way there, we stopped at a local state park and had a picnic by a lake.  It was very cold, so we wrapped up in jackets and towels.

When we arrived to Missoula, we scouted out places for dinner.

^^Cold Hard Cash was so awesome.  I think this was one of dad's favorite parts :) 

 ^^ Checking out some fishing stores, sadly they were all closed.

It was very cool to experience the town that Norman Maclean grew up in (the author of dad's favorite movie, A River Runs Through It).  I guess every Thursday night, the town has a festival with live music.  On this particular night, we watched Hard Cold Cash perform Johnny Cash music. They were awesome and dad loved it!

Make Donuts

Recipe Source: Pinterest
Made: July 13, 2014

Ingredients:

• ⅓ cup milk + 2 tbsp.
• 1½ tsp. white vinegar
• ¾ cup flour
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tbsp. butter, melted
• For the cinnamon sugar topping:
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. melted butter
• 
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease your donut pan and set aside.
2. In a large measuring cup, combine the milk and vinegar and set aside.
3. In a medium sized bow, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
4. Stir in the egg and melted butter into the milk and vinegar mixture. Then pour the milk mixture over the flour mixture and whisk until just combined.
5. Transfer batter to donut pan. You can use a spoon to spoon the dough into the individual cavities or put it in a ziploc bag, cut the corner of it, and pipe it into the cavities.
6. Bake for 7 minutes. Let cool in pan for 1-2 minutes when done and remove from pan and set on wire rack to cool completely.
7. In the meantime, in a small microwave safe bowl, melt 2 tbsp. of butter.
8. In another small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon and mix together.
9. When donuts are done cooling, brush one half of the donut with the melted butter and dip that side into the cinnamon sugar. Place back on wire rack. Repeat until all donuts have been covered with cinnamon sugar.
10. These donuts taste best the day of but you can still eat them the day after. I wouldn't keep them longer than two days.

Thoughts:  Not good.  The dough was awful.  I liked the concept of donuts, but we will definitely be trying new recipes.

Family Vacation: Part Three: Glacier National Park

One of my absoulte favorite parts of the trip was going to Glacier National Park and staying at the Glacer Park Lodge.  It was absolutely beautiful there.

As we pulled into the lodge parking lot we were awestruck that we were actually staying here.  A building built out of trees back in the early 1900s, still with no air conditioning, elevator, or tv.  It was a little piece of heaven.

 ^^ Our first stop on the Going to the Sun Road

 ^^ Big Horn Sheep by Logan Pass.

 ^^ Saw goats outside of the park at Goat Lick (Yes, that is the name lol.)

(We didn't have internet/phone service for a lot of the trip.  I surprisingly, really enjoyed that.  It was a great reminder that I need to put down all devices and enjoy life.  However, I was very, very thankful we had service in the middle of Wyoming when we our car broke down.  And I was very, very thankful our car broke down on that Saturday, rather than the late Friday night drive, out in the middle of nowhere, with no service.)

Get Messy | Two

Hello again!

And once again, I waited the night before to do my two pages.  But oh man, I was in such a groove last night, I didn't want to stop.  I got my photos from my vacation a few weeks back and I'm in love this them.  While we were on our trip, I knew I wanted to create a four triangle page that showed all the places we traveled.  I didn't know I would be adding the quote, but I'm so glad I did.  It definitely goes along with my One Little Word, moment.

This is what I did for my second page.  This quote really resonated with me and I knew I wanted to create something that wasn't necessarily 'pretty' i.e. all rough edges for the flower.   In our world, we are constantly showing off to our friends on Facebook, instagram, etc and it is so hard to not compare ourselves with others.  And yet, we all do it.

Project Life Week 23-26

Week Twenty Three | This week I photographed my second birth.  This time I didn't know the new parents, but it was just as magical.  Still going on with my #100happydays.

Week Twenty Four | This week we went to the KC Farmer's Market.  Lots of fun, would love to spend more time there next time though.  I added a 4x6 flip pages to add a few extra photos from our time in KC.  Still need to add my 12of12 grid to this week.

Week Twenty Five | This was an awesome week, by far.  Dad and I went back down to KC on a Tuesday night to meet up my new Crick Camera friends and photographed some of the skyline.  The main thing we learned was how to create a panoramic photo.  So, so cool.  And then Crick's printed me a copy for free.  I can't want to get it framed and hang it up in the house.  I had my dinner date with my girls on Wednesday.  And then D and I had a date to the Royals Game.  It was H.O.T.  But so fun.  Plus it was buck night and it was the first time D saw the fireworks that our stadium puts off on buck nights.  (Coming from a girl who doens't really watch baseball, how he has never seen the fireworks before shocks me!)

Week Twenty Six | Another simple week.  Still working though my #100happydays.  Watched Erin in her performance of Winnie the Pooh.  It is so fun to see her act, sing, and dance.  Love this girl!

OLW July Goals

Instead of setting intentions for the year, I am setting 3 goals to accomplish each month.  Goals that will create moments.  Goals that are attainable.  Goals that are things I need to get done.  Goals that will make me a better person. 

-  ME | Actively use fitbit this month.  I need to get in the habit of really taking care of myself. | Fitbit has been on and used almost daily.  I say almost because I didn't track my food the week we were on vacation.  It has been fascinating to see how much I move in the morning when I'm getting ready for work and how much I don't move while I'm at work--the downside to a desk job.  I tweaked the goals that fitbit automatically sets for you.  For me, that's ok.  I'm still not reaching my goals everyday, but they can be met and I'm more likely to reach them based on what my average daily activity is like.  They are more attainable and I'm more likely going to stick with using fitbit past one month or after summer ends.  The main thing, is that it still is pushing me to get up and go for a walk, even if it's a little one around the block.  

-  GIVE | Still thinking on what to do with this one.  I think it will be a spur of the moment thing, not something I plan out. | It was minimal, but I sent postcards to my kids.  Their mom told me that it was thoughtful and they loved getting mail from me and now they can't wait to go to Yellowstone!

-  CELEBRATE | Plan family vacation.  We've been talking about this for a year and I'm happy to report it will be happening this month. | We went on our family vacation at the end of July.  It was wonderful!!!  We traveled to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devils Tower, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Park.  I've posted a few photos on this blog, I have many more to go.

-  Learn my cameo with the Cameo Basics class through Studio Calico.  I bought this class during sale thinking it would force me to finally learn my machine. | Didn't do anything this this, but that's ok.  It was an incredibly busy month.  And I completed the goals Ali set for us.

July was awesome!  Here is what I have planned for August:

1.  Limit myself to one hour a day for screen time (computer/ipad/phone/tv).  This does not include time spent printing photos for PL, watching Oscar movies, watching Bachelor in Paradise (come on, I need one guilty pleasure), and putitng together our vacation video, all of which are on my project to do list.

2.  Put together a video from our vacation.  I've never done this before and purposely took videos for this goal.  I already know I should have taken more videos...

3.  Breathe in the last long summer days.